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[Marty3d]

Hi!

After much spent time trying to configure MC12 to "be" like MC11, I give up.

The goal: To be able to watch my movies and shows on the TV. Sounds simple? Well, read on.

MC12 seems to have a real problem with multiple monitors. I hope this will be optimized alot before release, because not being able to display your content on a TV in an easy way in 2006 is definitively a show stopper. No way I am going to use MC12 to watch video as it is right now!

Tried solution number one: Use Display View
Simply set MC to display fullscreen (or Display View as our beloved team likes to call it). First time it showed the video fullscreen, it changed my 1st display (monitor) to, I don't know, 640x480 perhaps. After some digging for the settings (which weren't accessible via Tools > Options, or View) I changed it from 'Nearest monitor' to 'Display #2'. Fine. Played my video again, and this time MC disappears! Well, walking into my living room I saw MC there instead. Since my RF mouse can't reach that far, I slowly navigated the mouse pointer to the top right corner and closed the fullscreen. I actually noticed that I could close it by hitting Escape, but then the main view stayed on my TV instead of going back to the monitor.

Tried simple solution number two: Use Detached View
I first saw this in an old thread where people argued on how to show things like it used to be. My first reaction was that you couldn't access Detached View in View, Player or Tools > Options. Only by right-clicking in a view (top window if you're not playing video or in AW and top window if you are). Fair enough. THen came a couple of minutes trying to position the Detached View onto the TV and maximize it. At last! I could watch my movie on my TV without any more troubles...I wrongfully thought. What happens when you un-Detach the view? Well. Each time you want to watch something on your TV, you have to maximize the **** thing since it changes itself to a restored state!

Conclusion:
I'm not doing this. Until the setup changes, I use Windows Media Player or MC11 to watch my movies and shows.
1. I don't care about the "integration" path JRiver tries to follow (explained in various posts here). If integration means complications, then it's wrong. The world we live in today is complicated enough, don't make it worse. If the standard full screen works, leave it to that.
Sidenote: This overly complication viewing on another monitor also means that years of displaying visualisations on the TV during parties is over.

Remember, I'm an experienced computer user. How on earth are our other family members going to manage this?

I really like most of the streamlining and simplifying of MC and I believe it will benefit most users. But in this case I'll have to strongly disagree. So I beg you people, please think about this one once more. Make it simpler, not harder for the user!

Thank you!
/Martin

[Matt]

It's not clear from your post what the exact problem is.  Could you concisely state what you believe should be changed?

I use a big-screen projector for TV as a second monitor at home.  I don't have any of the same frustrations.

Thanks.

[Matt]

Here's one change in the next build:
Changed: Detached display remembers if it was fullscreen last time it was detached and returns to the same state.

It sounds like life is a little complicated because you don't have a remote in the living room.  If you have a remote, you can let MC go to the second monitor and control it there.  I've had good luck with an integrated RF keyboard / mouse.

[Marty3d]

Thanks for taking your time on this, Matt.
Actually, I DO have a remote, but as you know, the RW2 is quite limited, so I can only use it for basic navigation like play, pause, skip and slooow mouse navigation.

But now when I'm cooled down, I'll try to explain what I believe is wrong here.
I assume that one of your goals is to make MC simpler and streamlined. But after reading the discussion in the last (.55) release thread, perhaps you see that the current solution isn't an comfortable one.

I can't really pin down the problem, other than that you spread confusion with the different views. The Display View is good on your primary monitor, but horrible when sending it to another screen. Detached View (used maximized on a TV) is almost like the former Full Screen. I see the problem with every user using these in different ways. But isn't the most basic use to view things on a big screen?

In short, I think going back to MC11 solution is the best option given. Like a slogan taken from somewhere, "It just works".

I can elaborate a bit if you want, but others opinions should also be rallied.

Thanks for listening,
/Martin

[Matt]

The Display View is good on your primary monitor, but horrible when sending it to another screen.

Could you explain?  This is the only way I use it, and it's quite elegant in my opinion.

[Marty3d]

Well, probably because MC11 didn't send the whole program to the other display...old habits die hard I REALLY like having MC on my monitor and the fullscreen on my TV.

Btw, I just tried the different modes on my laptop (no second monitor). after a short comparision, I noticd the following:

Display View
- Like old full screen, but MC only appears on the active screen
- Has basic controls, disappears after being idle a while

Detached View
- If maximized = like old full screen and MC appears on both screens
- Has no controls

One possible streamlining is to combine these two, like this:
- Add basic controls to Detached View if maximized, otherwise no controls

Then you have both your solutions in one package, so to speak. Have I missed something?